News from the Horizontal Poet

Hi All, it's Woman-Stirred member Jan Steckel posting after a year or so of silence.

My fiction chapbook arrived today! It looks beautiful. Mixing Tracks won the Gertrude Press Fiction Chapbook Award for LGBT writers. Here’s the publisher’s blurb for the 22-page book:

“A darkly comic and oddly touching story of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and a plane crash that crushes human bodies while leaving the mandolins unharmed. In Mixing Tracks, Jan Steckel strikes an unsettling balance between the consolations of memory, the thrilling ephemerality of youthful ambition, and our shared need for connection, even (or especially) when our world seems to have to come to its end.”

If you want to order one for $8, you may have to bounce around http://www.gertrudepress.org a bit, but please be persistent, and keep looking at the shopping cart icon. Sooner or later it will successfully register your order! Don't wait too long, though, because there are fewer than a hundred copies left. Start by going to the Catalog at the top of the site and pulling down the menu; click on Chapbooks.

Please help me by ordering Mixing Tracks from the Gertrude Press website at http://www.gertrudepress.org! If I can sell out this first print run, they may do another. If this fiction chapbook sells well like my poetry chapbook did, it may help me get a publisher for the full-length short story collection I finished recently. I’ll have some copies of Mixing Tracks to sell at my July readings, but I won’t be taking mail orders myself this time.

Upcoming Readings

Monday, July 6, 2009, at 7 PM. I’m featured with Joyce Jenkins (editor of Poetry Flash) and my husband Hew Wolff at the Gallery Cafe Reading Series hosted by Kit Kennedy. Open mic to follow. The Gallery Cafe, 1200 Mason St. at Washington, San Francisco, CA. 414-296-9932. Take the bus: #1 California, #30 Stockton, #45 Union. For more information contact Kit Kennedy, kitkennedy@yahoo.com, 415-305-1831.

Monday, July 20, 2009, at 6:40 PM. I’m featured with Seattle author Cat Ruiz plus open mic at Poetry Express, hosted by Mark States, Nance Wogan and Jim Barnard. Priya Indian Restaurant, 2072 San Pablo Ave. (near University Ave.), Berkeley, CA. 510-644-3977. Ask for special seating for poetry reading; 10% off dinner.

You can find details about my terrific co-featured poets at http://www.jansteckel.com/Events.html.

Publications

Fiction, poetry and essay publications over the past year and a half include work in Bellevue Literary Review, Sage Trail Poetry Magazine, The November 3rd Club, Outsider Writers, the anthology Getting Bi (2nd Edition), SoMa Literary Review, The Eloquent Atheist, Street Spirit, S.F. Heart, Faithful Fools Anthology: Living in the Land of the Dead, Vol. 3, Redwood Coast Review, and Bi Women. I have work forthcoming in Canary, Sparring with Beatnik Ghosts, and the anthology Best Bi Short Stories. My wonderful webmistress and Woman-Stirred colleague Nicki Hastie is gradually adding links to many of these to my website writing resume at http://www.jansteckel.com/Writing.html. Drop by to check out what’s new! You can also find me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/jan.steckel or on Goodreads.com, where I have an author page and a blog.

Julie R Enszer and the Lesbian Poetry Archive

Today on Woman-Stirred Radio, Julie R. Enszer brings us the Lesbian Poetry Archives, a digital online project that collects and preserves the work of lesbian poets.

Julie R. Enszer is a writer and lesbian activist who holds an MFA from the University of Maryland and is currently enrolled in the PhD program in Women’s Studies at Maryland. Her work has been published in Iris: A Journal About Women, Room of One's Own, Long Shot, the Jewish Women's Literary Annual, and the Harrington Lesbian Literary Quarterly.

Enszer's Lesbian Poetry Archive "is conceived as a place to digitally preserve lesbian poetry and its ephemera and present them to not only scholars, but also poets and general readers. With this launch in December 2008, there are three items, the introductory material to Amazon Poetry, published in 1975; the introductory material to Lesbian Poetry, published in 1981; and the complete chapbook A Movement of Poets by Jan Clausen, published in 1982" (Enszer 2008).

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from lesbian and queer activists.

We are funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

Founders and Breadlines: Ray Raphael and Sasha Abramsky

This week: Ray Raphael at 4:15 and Sasha Abramsky at 5:00.




Founders: The People who brought You a Nation, is Raphael’s closely focused exploration of the ordinary people who participated in the great experiment of American Independence. Raphael's sweeping narrative offers readers the fascinating stories of seven ordinary in a bottom-up study of Timothy Bigelow, Henry Laurens, Joseph Plumb Martin, Robert Morris, Mercy Otis Warren, and Thomas Young, with some delightfully scandalous behavior from George Washington to keep it all simmering along. In the words of noted historian Gary B. Nash, Director of The National Center for History in the Schools, historian Ray Raphael “teaches us more about the multiple dimensions of the American Revolution than one could ever have imagined.”

Ray Raphael has published books on subjects as diverse as male initiation rites, education, regional history (Northwest California), and timber politics. His first book, An Everyday History of Somewhere, won the Commonwealth Club award for the best book of the year about California. A Phi Beta Kappa graduate from Reed College, he holds masters degrees from the University of California at Berkeley (Political Philosophy) and Reed College (Teaching Social Science and History). In addition to teaching at Humboldt State University and College of the Redwoods, he has taught all subjects except foreign languages at a one-room public high school in his remote community. He is currently a Senior Research Fellow with Humboldt State University, working full time as a researcher and writer. He lives in the hills of northern California and kayaks whitewater rivers.






>Breadline USA dives deep into the lives of working-poor Americans who find themselves trapped by the confluence of the housing market collapse, erratic, rising energy costs, and a health care system that mismanages, damages and ruins the lives it is supposed to enhance. Add to this mix their struggle to access nutritious affordable food. In Breadline USA Abramsky brings us the stories of Americans in all types of communities and how they manage at the end of the month when money runs out and the social safety net isn’t there to catch them./a>

Sasha Abramsky is a freelance journalist. His work has appeared in The Nation, The Atlantic Monthly, New York magazine, The Village Voice, and Rolling Stone. Born and raised in England, Abramsky is a graduate of Oxford University, and holds a master’s degree from Columbia University School of Journalism. In 2000 he was awarded a Soros Society, Crime, and Communities Media Fellowship, and he is currently a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based Demos think tank. In addition to Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It, (PoliPoint 2009), Abramsky is the author of: American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment, (Beacon 2007), Hard Time Blues (2002) and Conned (2006). /a>

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from bi-activist Jan Steckel, British writer Nicki Hastie, and lesbian literary historian and poet, Julie R. Enszer.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

The Poet and the Progressive: John Amen and Matt Rothschild

This Thursday, May 28, beginning at 4:15 pm (eastern), Merry Gangemi welcomes John Amen, editor of The Pedestal Magazine, and at 5:00, welcomes Matt Rothschild, editor of The Progressive Magazine, to Woman-Stirred Radio.

John Amen is the author of two volumes of poetry, More of Me Disappears (2005), and Christening the Dancer(2003).

Amen travels widely to give readings, performances, and workshops. In his spare time he is a folk/rock singer/songwriter, and a visual artist working primarily with acrylics.

Amen edits The Pedestal Magazine, an ezine that is widely respected for its excellence in content and layout. Click HERE to go to the website, and HERE to go to John's website.

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At 5:00, Matthew Rothschild, editor and publisher of The Progressive Magazine, visits with Merry Gangemi to talk about Democracy in Print: 100 Years of The Progressive Magazine (University of Wisconsin Press), a recently released volume of articles and essays spanning 100 years of the Progressive's publication. Through his careful selections and editing, Rothschild brings to life the dialogues and participatory activism of notables Kurt Vonnegut, Paul Welstone, Noam Chomsky, martin Luther King, Jr., James Baldwin, Huey Long, Allen Ginsberg, Adrienne Rich, Rita Dove, June Jordon and Frank Zappa. Voices that confirm The Progressive as a highly-respected and globally recognized community that continues the belief and actualization of peace and social justice in the United States.

Rothschild has made guest appearances on , C-SPAN, DemocracyNow!, Nightline, NPR, and The O'Reilly Factor. he is also a recognized commentator and has work in The Chicago Tribune, The L.A. Times, and The Miami Herald, among others.

Feel free to join in the conversation. The air-studio phone number is 802.454-7762.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from bi-activist Jan Steckel, British writer Nicki Hastie, and lesbian literary historian and poet, Julie R. Enszer.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

Martha Nell Smith and the Emily Dickinson Electronic Archives

Today at 4:15 on Woman-Stirred Radio, Merry Gangemi welcomes Martha Nell Smith, author of Open Me Carefully: Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson and executive director of the most amazing Dickinson resource yet, the Electronic Dickinson Archives.

The Dickinson Electronic Archives (DEA), is a website devoted to the study of Emily Dickinson, her writing practices, writings directly influencing her work, and critical and creative writings generated by her work. The DEA is produced by the Dickinson Editing Collective, with an executive editor, a general editor, two associate editors, a project manager, and a technical editor working collaboratively with one another and with numerous coeditors, staff, and users.

The DEA provides access to Dickinson's correspondence and facsimiles of actual letters and drafts of poems; constellations of poems; recordings of well-known poets reading Dickinson's work and adding commentary on the influence of Dickinson on their work and lives as women who are poets; critical resources, and teaching aids.

So please tune in or listen online to Woman-Stirred Radio, Thursday, May 21st at 4:15 (eastern).

Call in with questions or comments! The air studio phone is 802.454.7762.

Mary Roach Returns to Woman-Stirred Radio

This Thursday, May 7th at 4:15 (eastern), science writer Mary Roach
returns to Woman-Stirred Radio to talk about Bonk: the Curious Coupling of Science and Sex, just released in paperback from WW Norton.

A native of Etna, New Hampshire, Roach graduated from Wesleyan in 1981 and moved out to San Francisco, where she landed a stint in PR at the San Francisco Zoo. In her own words:

"I mostly write books these days, but I still write the occasional magazine piece. These have run in Outside, National Geographic, New Scientist, Wired, and The New York Times Magazine, as well as many others too embarrassing to name. A 1995 article of mine called "How to Win at Germ Warfare" was a National Magazine Award Finalist, and in 1996, my article on earthquake-proof bamboo houses took the Engineering Journalism Award in the general interest magazine category, for which I was, let's be honest, the only entrant. I often write about science, though I don't have a science degree and must fake my way through interviews with experts I can't understand. I also review books for The New York Times."

Mary is refreshing and fun and this week's interview promises to be just as interesting and lively as her first one was on Woman-Stirred. So tune in this Thursday, May 7th. 4:15 (eastern) for a delightful conversation with Mary Roach. air studio phone lines will be open 802 454-7762.

Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from bi-activist Jan Steckel, British writer Nicki Hastie, and lesbian literary historian and poet, Julie R. Enszer.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.

Lisa Williams Reads to the Sea

Woman Reading to the Sea


Please join Merry Gangemi in welcoming Lisa Williams, author of Woman Reading to the Sea to Woman-Stirred Radio this Thursday, April 30th at 5 pm (eastern)for a discussion of her award-winning collection of poems

A scholar and associate professor of English at Centre College, in Denville, Kentucky, Williams holds an MA in creative writing and poetry from the University of Virginia, an MA degree in literature from the University of Cincinnati, and a BA from Belmont University.

Joyce Carol Oates calls Woman Reading to the Sea “Poems of arresting intelligence, precision, and beauty. In wonderfully crafted language, with the startling subtlety of certain of Emily Dickinson’s poems, Lisa Williams takes us into eerily imagined worlds—the interior of a jellyfish, and the interior of a glacier; she beguiles us with the most seductive of poetic possibilities... . This slender volume constitutes a journey of sorts, a pilgrimage ‘out’ that returns the questing poet, imagined as a companion ‘you,’ to her own life.”

Here is the title poem, Woman Reading to the Sea.

There's a certain freedom in the long blue slant
of its uncaring, in the wind that knocks
the surface onto rocks, and there's a dent

made in that wind by the woman who recites
straight into it, pretending the waves might hear
or that some larger being that is sea

or seeing hangs there listening, when sea air's
so clearly full of its own gusts and grunts,
inanimate uprisings. In the line

of no one's sight, her voice lost in the spray,
she feels a chilling freedom: how the foam
edges the sheets of zigzag patterned water

while gulls' shrill outbursts punctuate the sky
(one cloudy, sentimental phrase
or canvas brushed with amber, green, and rose).

What welcomes, and ignores, and doesn't question?
Sheer emptiness. It's like a husk
for her alone. It's like a shell for absence.

Without an audience, she makes a noise
swallowed by waves and wind, just as
the waves themselves---or no, just like the drops

lost in the waves, which neither care nor keep
distinctions---sweep out a place
inside an amphitheatre she imagines

rising around her, with columns that crash
instantly, like the white foam that collides
and shreds its layered castles. Her words drift,

dissolve, and disappear. A crest
of words has surged and poured into the sea.
It doesn't matter now what the lines say.


Woman-Stirred Radio broadcasts live on WGDR (91.1 fm) and streams online at wgdr.org every Thursday afternoon from 4 to 6 p.m. (eastern), with interviews, music, and guest commentaries from bi-activist Jan Steckel, British writer Nicki Hastie, and lesbian literary historian and poet, Julie R. Enszer.

Woman-Stirred Radio is funded in part by the Samara Foundation of Vermont, a non-profit, Burlington-based foundation that seeks to improve the quality of life for Vermont's lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered citizens. Click on the link to find out more about Samara Foundation and its programs.